University-of-Virginia-2

The speakers discuss whether men and women can be purely platonic friends. One person believes it depends on their romantic history, while the other thinks there will always be an attraction. They also discuss how friends of the same gender can talk about certain things more freely. The cultural differences at UVA can affect how people view friendships with the opposite gender. People from different backgrounds may find it difficult to adapt and there can be problems and isolation. They also mention that some people have ulterior motives when trying to be friends with the opposite gender. My name is Raheem. My name is Norbert. Do you guys think men and women can be purely platonic friends? Why or why not? Yeah, I do believe that men and women can be platonic. It just depends on the history that they have. If their history was any romantic type level, then I don't believe that it can be platonic. But other than that, yeah, I think it can be platonic. Me personally, I don't think so, because I think there's always going to be an attraction level. Because I think, you know, over time, that's going to build up, and then I think someone's going to want more than the other person, and then there's just going to be a lot of problems. I don't think so. Are there certain things that friends of your gender can do for you that friends of the opposite gender can't, and vice versa? Well, I think, you know, it's just people for guys. When we're hanging out, I feel like there's a lot of stuff that we can talk about that we might not even like to talk about freely with the other gender. And, I mean, I think, honestly, I'm not really sure about, like, girls and stuff. But, I mean, I think for guys, from my perspective, I think so. I feel like there's a lot of different aspects come into play when it comes down to that. When men are trying to be friends with each other, they're looking for a brotherhood. When, if a man is trying to, I can't speak for all men, but when a man is trying to be friends with a girl, like you said, it could be an attraction level. But if it's like, if they've been friends forever, they've been friends since they was kids, it was like they might have that brother-sister relationship. So, I really think it's possible that both things can be, both genders can give the same thing off to each other. Do you guys think UVA culture plays a part in how you view friendships with opposite gender? So, my personal experience being here for four years is just the fact that I don't believe UVA is the, it's not really the best place to come and try to meet people that you think are possibly going to be like you, or possibly. Because everybody comes from different places. Me, I'm from Philadelphia. It's real different than out here. It's real different than Northern Virginia, Richmond, and stuff like that. So, I come down here and I think some of these people are weird. But, they might not be weird to the people that they come from. So, I met him, he's from the D.C. area, and we clicked just because we're from a similar background. Now, UVA just brings a whole bunch of people from different areas and just throws them into the fire of being in school and trying to live amongst each other when we've never lived amongst people like this before. I mean, probably similar to what he said. I think, from my experience, it's funny though, because I think, me personally, I'm very adaptable to a lot of situations, but I don't think it's like that for a lot of different people. So, I think a lot of people, they come here, it's kind of like a culture shock. And then, they're like, oh damn, wow, these people think this is cool, but I don't think that's cool. And there's a lot of stuff like that. And that can build a lot of problems, create isolation. A lot of people here, they could be lonely or just fake friends type shit. And I think that really plays a role. Like he said, where people come from, it plays a really big role. It builds dynamics between male and female friendships. Because, honestly, where I'm from, a lot of people, especially around our age, when they're trying to be friends with people of the opposite gender, I don't want to lie, there's obviously an ulterior motive. So, I think other people, they might not see it like that. So, I think it's just a lot of differences from where we come from and our upbringing. Yeah. Okay, thanks guys. Okay, I think we're good after that. Okay.